


Beauty and Grace

by XaviaAndromedovna



Series: More Like the Mr. Beacon Hills Supernatural Community Pageant, Right Derek? Derek, Am I Right? [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Miss Congeniality Fusion, Angst and Feels, Angst with a Happy Ending, Break Up Talk, Derek Hale is Bad at Feelings, Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski UST, F/M, Love Confessions, Love Triangles, M/M, Missing Scene, POV Lydia Martin, Pre-Slash, Spoilers, established stydia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:54:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22371382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XaviaAndromedovna/pseuds/XaviaAndromedovna
Summary: Lydia and Derek have a begrudging but much-needed heart-to-heart about the man only one of them's in love with.
Relationships: Derek Hale & Lydia Martin, Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Lydia Martin/Stiles Stilinski
Series: More Like the Mr. Beacon Hills Supernatural Community Pageant, Right Derek? Derek, Am I Right? [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1610398
Comments: 2
Kudos: 104





	Beauty and Grace

**Author's Note:**

> Here's a missing scene from my larger Miss Congeniality AU, set while Stiles is out for girls' night. Spoilers for the main fic. I'm still forever annoyed that Stydia is canon because my girl Lydia deserves better than being Nice Guyed, so here have some future angst. Also do Derek and Lydia interact like ever for more than 2 minutes? I need them to be friends.

When Lydia stops by the command center to drop off the sash and earpiece, Derek is the only one in the room. Which is good, because while she’s dreading this conversation, it’s overdue.

It’s hard to believe only a week ago she and Derek were friendly but distant, never having much occasion to interact outside of life-or-death situations. When she woke up screaming the Sheriff’s name, the call she placed to Scott told her Derek was already on his way and they were dealing with it. The “don’t tell Stiles” went unsaid. She boarded the next flight to California and showed up just in time to help the pack find the bomb. Parrish managed to diffuse it, but not before it could begin emitting vaporized wolfsbane. Suddenly hunters were upon them, and while they were quickly repelled, in the ensuing confusion, Scott, disoriented by the wolfsbane, had bitten the Sheriff.

When the dust settled, the first thing the Sheriff, bleeding but coherent, demanded was that no one tell Stiles. “Not yet, not until we know for sure what we’ll have to tell him.” Derek filled them in on the case, the letter, Raf assigning it to the pack to handle it, all the details she’s usually never privy to. The danger her boyfriend is constantly in at work strikes her full force, as it often does when reminded of Stiles’s mortality.

“The weird thing is,” Parrish said, examining the bomb, “I don’t think it was actually designed to detonate.”

“You mean the bomb was a decoy?”

“Maybe. The only parts that are actually functional are the clock and the diffuser mechanism.”

While they tried to parse the meaning of this new information, Derek got a call from McCall: there was another letter. When he informed the pack that he and Stiles had a new mission, Lydia cornered him on the way to his rental. “What’s the job, Derek?” He ignored her. “He shouldn’t be anywhere near this.”

“I can’t keep him safe if he’s a whole time zone away, and if I leave him on desk duty, how long do you think it’ll be until he gets bored enough to find out his dad was bitten?”

“What’s the job?”

“That’s classif—”

“Classified, of course, well guess what Derek? I am now on the needs-to-know list, because if this case has anything to do with Beacon Hills, you know the two of you are in grave danger.” He had kept walking to his car but at this point Lydia put her hand forcefully on his chest and looked him in the eyes. “I refuse to wait around until I scream his name. Tell me what we’re up against.”

He tossed her hand off him with a frustrated huff, but acquiesced. “They think the next target is the Miss United States pageant. Someone needs to go undercover, and since I’m point for this case, I’m assigning Stiles.”

“You want to put Stiles in a beauty pageant?”

He snorted. “Do you have a better idea?”

Something like that. “Have him call me, I’ll book my flight to Texas now.”

“You really think I’d let you come on this mission?”

She grinned. “Well someone has to do his makeup.”

“Yeah, our makeup team.”

“Derek. I am not asking you, I am telling you. If Stiles goes, I go. I don’t care what you have to do on your end to make it happen, it’s happening.”

And now here they are, trying to figure out how to take down Clonsky while managing Stiles’s cover and the relationship drama that came with it unannounced. Thankfully they’ve had the past couple days to warm up to each other enough that this conversation can end at least somewhat healthily. Derek pointedly looks anywhere but at her when she deposits the equipment on a table. “Thanks.”

“I take it you heard the whole thing.”

He nods awkwardly. She pulls up a chair across from him. “I’m sorry.”

“Please, we should have realized the mic was hot.”

“That’s not what I meant.” He finally looks at her and his face is uncomfortably vulnerable in a way Lydia isn’t used to seeing, even as the wolf has become much more expressive over the years. “You have nothing to be jealous of, Stiles and I have a strictly platonic relationship.”

That’s an… unexpected takeaway. “I never said you didn’t.”

“And you don’t have to worry about that changing, I respect you two too much to come between you.”

…huh. “Again, not what I was worried about, but now I am starting to wonder.”

He furrows his brow in thought. “I… it’s not a competition. I’m sure there are things he talks about with you he doesn’t tell me, and things only Scott knows. We occupy different roles in his life.”

She appreciates hearing that from him, because it’s something she tends to forget. But there’s something missing. “True,” she settles on replying. “Still not following where the apology comes in.”

“For monopolizing his attention.”

“Thank you?” His words make sense but his body language doesn’t. He looks as if he’s facing a firing squad, like a half-baked hope had died and he’s receiving some punishment for unexpiated guilts. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“There’s nothing more to tell.” She doesn’t need werewolf hearing to call that bluff, and he knows it. He closes his eyes in defeat and props his head up on his hands, elbows digging into his lap. “I’m just tired.”

She rolls her chair around so they don’t have to look at each other, seated side-by-side. Drawing out information this deeply buried in Derek Hale is a feat few in the pack can accomplish, and Lydia isn’t one of them. But Stiles is. It hits her all at once: _“I respect you two too much to come between you.”_ The uncomfortable reactions to Stiles’s innuendos, the banter that’s always been more than a bit flirtatious, the year and a half since Derek last dated.

“Derek…” she ventures softly, placing a delicate hand on his back. “Do you have feelings for Stiles?” Derek exhales through his hands with resignation, then nods once. It’s out there, laid bare. It doesn’t make her as mad as she hoped, which tells her all she needed to know. Lydia rewards this confession with one of her own, though she can’t physically bring herself to say it above a whisper: “I don’t.”

Derek shoots his head up as she breathes in a sob. He actually looks scared, but it’s too late to take it back. She’s told him the one thing she could barely tell herself. “What?”

“Please don’t make me say it again.” If she doesn’t get this out now, she fears she’ll never have the courage to again. “I can’t be what he needs me to be, I thought I could but I just—”

“Lydia, look at me.” His eyes are wide when she fixes hers on them. “You’re just tired and stressed. I know you love Stiles—”

“Of course I love him,” she retorts. “That’s not in question. I’m saying that you’re right. We occupy different roles in his life, and I can’t… I don’t want to be the girlfriend anymore. We were always better off friends.”

“Well I can’t be the boyfriend.” The frustration is plain on his face, and suddenly Lydia realizes why. He thinks he’s the reason she wants to break up with Stiles. She faces forward, unable to carry the weight of it. He composes himself and faces forward as well. “He’s gonna propose to you.”

She peeks at him then looks away again, nodding. “I know. Scott told me after Stiles bought the ring. I’m honestly relieved he hasn’t built himself up to it yet.”

“When… How long have you felt this way?”

“A while. This trip was definitely the icing on the cake, but we were drifting long before that.” Derek nods solemnly. “But not because of you, okay? Don’t flatter yourself. We’re just too similar.”

He breathes out in relief and takes her hand tentatively. “What’re you gonna do?”

“I don’t know. When is the best time to tell your boyfriend you aren’t in love with him? Is it before or after he has to stop a bomb threat in heels?” She laughs, leaning her head on his shoulder, which elicits a surprised chuckle. Of all the things to come out of this ridiculous situation, Lydia and Derek becoming actual friends is a welcome surprise. “He’s lucky to have you.”

Derek leans his head on hers cautiously. “He’s lucky to have you too.”

Lydia rolls her eyes and shifts so she can look him head-on. “Derek, I’m trying to give you my blessing.”

“You… _want_ me to steal your boyfriend.”

“Let me fill you in on a secret,” she snarks back. “You’ve already stolen him, I want you to wolf up and do something about it.”

He tries and fails to hide a smile. “I will if you will.”

She returns the smile, having finally made her decision. She holds out a hand, which he takes. They shake on it. “Deal.”

~~~

She receives a small package in March and opens it to find a suspiciously expensive-looking ring and a matching set of earrings. “Dear Lydia,” the letter reads. “Happy Birthday! I always did get you unnecessarily extravagant gifts, but this looks way better on you than me. The earrings are Derek’s addition. See you soon! Love, S & D”

When her new boyfriend walks in, she holds the ring up for him to see. “Just so you’re aware if it ever comes up: this is the standard by which all future jewelry purchases should be made. The bar is set.”


End file.
